Windows 10: Do I have to link license to MS account?

Hi all,

Some confusion on my part, I want to change my HDD to an SSD on an old system that has W10.

It currently is activated with a digital licence (being an upgrade from W7)

When I reinstall W10, will it activate correctly, or do I have to link the digital licence with a MS account first?

Thanks.

submitted by /u/Mr-Stumble
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:)

 

Linking Windows license with MS account - What does it do?

There's a nice and practical workaround for this.

When signed in to Windows with your local account, open any native Windows UWP app. I often use Weather app for this. Sign in to app with a Microsoft account (screenshots from Weather app):





When you have entered your MS account email, password and in case you are using two-step authentication, the verification code, click Next to add this MS account to Windows although still keeping your local account as a sign-in account:





This does not switch your Windows 10 local account to a Microsoft account. You will continue signing in to Windows with your a local account but you have now set Windows to automatically sign in to all Microsoft apps with the MS account email. Activation will now be connected to your MS account:





This allows you to transfer the license after hardware change.

 

Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License  

This is what i get on step 2

 

Linking Windows license with MS account - What does it do?

That information was from Groovypost (whatever that is) pointed to by an article in an Answers.Microsoft.com forum. Both postings were by Andre Da Costa. If one has incorrect information, the other probably does, too.

So at this point I go with Cereberus' suggestion?

At this point a failure could either be that I did something wrong or that reactivation /transfer is not allowed. Is that correct? Will it be clear if reactivation is not allowed for OEM licenses?

Is there any option to do the reactivation using the product key (assuming the product key displayed by products like Belarc Advisor is accurate)?

If I have to get a new Windows license am I dead in the water until I get it? And is a new license somehow tied to a new copy of Windows or can I just activate the existing installation with the new key?